


With Colliding Universes

by RoseFangedLion



Series: Comparing Starlight [2]
Category: K-pop, VIXX
Genre: College, College AU, First Kiss, Fluff, I swear I know how to write a plot, M/M, Plotless, Romance, relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 03:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5318732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseFangedLion/pseuds/RoseFangedLion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo and N have their first kiss on a non-date during their first semester of college at UCLA</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Colliding Universes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheNevemore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNevemore/gifts).



The gentle sound of Taekwoon's voice always astounded Hakyeon. For someone so intimidatingly handsome he sounded rather like a cartoon teddy bear. “Let me pay,” the younger man insisted again, “You paid for dinner.” Frustration hinted at the end of some vocal fray and his adorable accent came out heavy because he was irritated. It was the literal cutest thing that Hakyeon had ever heard. It was rainbow unicorns and puffy clouds audio-a-phied.

“Okay, okay,” the freshly minted red head relented, putting his hands, beaten leather wallet and all, up in surrender. “I just hate to see you spend your money on me. You work so hard.”

“I...” the other spent a moment looking for words as he often did when they were practicing his english, “I want to.”

“I said okay,” Hakyeon assured with a nod, clapping his hand down on the well defined collarbone of his slightly younger companion. It was just three dollar ice cream. Taekwoon was on his own, paying his way through college in LA but three dollar ice cream would not empty his bank account. Or at least, the N certainly hoped it wouldn't. 

Despite early December chill Leo insisted that it wasn't ever cold in California so he was only wearing a t-shirt. Warmth radiated from him and they were close enough then that Hakyeon could smell the spicy mix of old paper, fresh cut flowers and cologne that always surrounded his dark haired best friend. A sigh of contentment threatened to make its way awkwardly out the red-head's mouth but he caught it in his throat and swallowed it back down. 

“What can I get you?” The greying older man behind the counter asked again, now that they had finished arguing in front of him. 

“One Vanilla,” Leo offered to the kind gentleman in as embarrassingly faux vintage striped get up. The v came out sounding like a b, just like Hakyeon's father's often did. 

“Chocolate for me,” N smiled, bright in the overwhelming white ice cream shop. 

He gave them their total, scanned the card offered to him and got to work scooping ice cream. 

“Hakyeon-ah?” Taekwoon asked, waving a hand in front of his companion's face. “Where to go next?”

He resisted the urge to coo about how cute that was and instead corrected it, “Where to next, or where are we going next?” Hakyeon asked back, “They mean the same thing.” 

“Where to next?” Taekwoon asked with a shy smile. 

As he was about to open his mouth and say there was an arcade down the street the gentleman handed their ice cream cones over and sent them off with a cheerful goodbye of “You boys enjoy the rest of your date.”

N chose to ignore the implication...sort of. As much as he could anyway. 

Taekwoon and he went on little not-dates like that all of the time. They were best friends not boyfriends. Maybe it was super cliché but the elder assumed his soul crushing desire to date his black haired lion boy would pass eventually. It wasn't like they had even been friends for that long; just over half a semester and this wasn't some sappy chick flick anyway. There would be no random realizations or outright public confessions. As much as he wished he could, it was just too much. Poor Taekwoon. It was a long sad story how he had been uprooted and was living on his own, paying his own way through college completely disowned by his parents on the opposite side of the world. Honestly it had taken months to pry it out of him, months and an offer to take him in for thanksgiving. 

With that embarrassing conversation fresh in his mind as they walked down the sidewalk in lulling silence he decided to apologize again. For the thousandth time. “Sorry about how my dad was at thanksgiving.”

Taekwoon shrugged in acknowledgment as if to say that it didn't matter anymore. 

It had killed him a little bit when he father had asked why Leo was in LA. The answer wasn't just because of the fantastic music program, there were plenty of good school's for that in Korea. No, the answer was much more painful than that. The truth was, when the younger man had told his parents he was gay they had thrown him out. Luckily, and sadly, he had anticipated this result and applied for school abroad, UCLA was just the place he he got the best scholarships to. He'd lived on his best friend Wonshik's couch for three weeks before getting on a plane with two suitcases and a backpack. He worked at a music shop for scraps of change just so he could eat. It broke N's heart. 

The red head sighed out in the chill of early December, and shivered a bit in his hooded sweatshirt even though his companion would insist it wasn't even close to cold. “Ive cream was a terrible idea on such a cold night.”

“It's not cold,” Taekwoon offered predictably in response.

The cheesy part of Hakyeon wanted to ask Leo to warm him up, instead he settled for, “Do you want to go see a movie?” he asked, crossing in front of his friend as the reached the center of the plaza where the theatre and the arcade were. “Or we could go to the arcade. I'll pay.”

When he turned around to judge Taekwoon's gorgeous face his world flipped upside down. 

It was so sudden and so unexpected that Hakyeon was sure he would have missed it if those cold wet lips hadn't been covered in vanilla ice cream. There was no tender hug or soft stare of intent. Just a mix of chocolate and vanilla ice cream and the ridiculously painful fluttering in his stomach. For the love of all that was kind and good in the world...Jung Taekwoon was kissing him.

He didn't really want to exaggerate and say that stars collided, but they totally did. Stars collided in his chest, overwhelmed his full heart and swept all of the breath right out of his lungs. The air turned to night sky between them and suddenly they were both made of starlight, floating in a void of eternity for just one half of a second before Taekwoon broke away. 

A ramble of hangul spilled out of the black haired man's mouth so fast that his companion could scarcely keep up. There was an apology followed by an explanation that was very much along the lines of “you just look so good.” 

Ice cream was melting, sticky and sliding all over Hakyeon's hand and he didn't even care because this was Leo. Taekwoon. His best friend. Maybe they hadn't been best friends for long but that didn't make them any less close right?

“Mianhae,” The taller boy continued, “jeongmal mian haeyo.” He took an agonizing step backwards and bowed, deeply, spilling out words that Hakyeon could only half catch in the flutter of his thoughts. 

Three things went through Hakeyon's overly excited, very emotional mind in that moment. The first was ruled out immediately because he'd had to go to that consent seminar at the beginning of the semester and it was never okay to use physical affection to shut someone up, so kissing Leo to make him stop apologizing was out of the question. The second was entirely too abrasive and very k-drama-y which was not something he aspired to, so his absurd desire to scream 'hajima' at the top of his lungs was squished and filed away under a definite 'no.' The third though, that made sense. It was mildly rational. Sass was rational. 

“Taekwoon was that a confession?” The redhead managed to ask, brushing his lips with the fingers of his cleaner hand. “If it was, it's the cutest I've ever gotten.” He was one hundred percent sure he had never seen a shade of red so beautiful stain anyone's cheeks as the one that crossed Leos. “You better not be playing with my heart lion boy.” 

The other man's eyes lit up, as his head bobbed as he straightened his back. Hakyeon watched cold pink lips twitch, not in searching but in restraint. He wasn't in Leo's head but he imagined it was the younger trying very hard to not apologize again. “I...” he stuttered sweetly, quietly in the chaos swirling around them, “I'm not good with words.” 

Hakyeon felt himself melt, even in the evening chill he felt warm. “I know you aren't silly boy,” he offered, gentle against the harsh street lights, “And I know that must have been really hard for you.”

Taekwoon scoffed with a fresh blush painting his oddly pale skin and he reached up to rub the baby fine hairs on the back of his neck with his free hand. Small brown eyes traced red converse carefully as Hakyeon attempted to make make eye contact with him.

Awkward silence spread around them. N bent and twisted his dancer body to try and meet Taekwoon's eyes in any way possible but the younger man was making it very difficult, even going so far as to cover his eyes with his arms. “Taekwoon, look at me would you?” he laughed. 

“Come on,” he teased in a sing-song voice. “Look at me.” 

Finally the black haired lion boy put his hands down, shoving the last piece of his ice cream cone into his mouth as he did, “Hakyeon I am sorry.” he offered one last time, dipping his head just a little. 

Clearly the message was not getting across the way it was intended to. So maybe it was okay to be a little bit k-drama-y. Just a little though. Just enough to make N feel like the cool one for once. “Taekwoon-ah joahaeyo.” 

In his he'd the whole street did a freeze frame, grey scaled and the credits started rolling to the tune of some super upbeat sappy song. Flashes of their not-date played behind his eyes as he watched Leo carefully. 

“You mean it?” the lion boy asked finally in a strange mix of two languages that clashed when they tried to meet. “You really mean it.”

“I meant it a long time ago,” Hakyeon confessed, “I just didn't want to scare you away or hurt you. I know its been hard for you...Calfornia, the move, your parents...I just...wanted to be friends if nothing else.”

A smile ghosted the edge of Taekwoon's lips, curled the corners and glittered deep in his chocolate eyes. A puff of air pushed his mouth open, and he would have tried to cover his toothy grin with his hand but Hakyeon saw it reaching happening and reached out to take that hand in his own. Long elegant piano fingers laced through rough dancer's palms with ease and they smiled at the warmth that wound through their bodies in the middle of a busy night on the promenade.

In all of the time that they had know each other it had always been Hakyeon's job to take the lead. On not-dates, on outings with Ken and Hongbin, even on the trip to his home for Thanksgiving but this, he didn't even know where to begin with this. Apparently that was fine. 

Long fingers slid along his warm cheek timidly, shaking, freezing cold from the ice cream cone they had been held previously. Taekwoon brushed strands of freshly trimmed red hair behind his dear friend's ears. 

Hakyeon, in return, traced, with careful eyes the puffy cheeks and strong pointed jawline of the gorgeous man before him. “I really like you,” he breathed out genuinely, his voice dripping like caramel with mixed anxiety and something like love. In the stillness between them breathes became longing and space filled with the memories of months spent waiting for this one moment and then the gap was gone. 

Stars really did collide. Two whole galaxies smashed together in the brightness of a new and unexpected future. Taekwoon's lips were warm this time and laced with a something that made the older man's stomach twist up in impossible knots. Soft fingertips padded across burning red cheeks, beckoning him closer even when there was no space left to fill. He dropped his ice cream then, and pulled his arm around the younger man. 

A slick tongue traced the contour of Hakyeon's lower lip. That surprised him and made him smile deeply into this new found comfort. It felt amazing, and somehow familiar despite its newness. When they pulled apart, that was when the tender hug came. Drawn into impossibly strong arms, and cradled like he was somehow fragile he found himself feeling melted and safe as he rested his head against a broad shoulder. 

“It's you're turn to confess now Taekwoon,” he teased rubbing his nose into the nape of his taller companion's neck.

Taekwoon chuckled gently and offered a whispered, “I like you too.”

Hakyeon's lips were still tingling three and a half hours later. It was so pathetic, but he kept brushing his calloused fingers the chapped expanse of dark pink flesh. It was going to rub raw if he kept at that. 

The red head squeaked out a giggle for the ten billionth time and and kick his feet against the rickety plank rail on the tiny top bunk. It would have echoed thought his dirty box of a dorm room except that HongBin and his room mate Ken were playing Mario Kart so loudly no one could hear him. 

Heat rushed to his cheeks as he remembered Leo's smooth, wet, lips against his own dry, nearly cracked ones. Gentle, hesitant pressure that sent chills down his spine and made his toes curl.

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone was curious, this whole series is one giant gift for TheNevemore. We trade fics for productive adulting; her choice was Neo and I wanted to college AU in a way that would satisfy my secret desire to use oddly placed Korean words.


End file.
